


Beat You to It

by seasalticecream32



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-22
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-10 15:46:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4397789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seasalticecream32/pseuds/seasalticecream32
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur has big plans for his and Merlin's three year anniversary. Of course, Merlin ruins them all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beat You to It

Arthur tapped his foot and checked his watch. Merlin was  _late_ . It was their three year anniversary and just once Arthur wanted everything to go perfectly.

He’d picked out everything exactly as Merlin would want it.

Merlin’s favorite Indian restaurant was decked out in candles. Arthur had called in every favor he had. And some of his father’s. The fire warden was sweet talked into giving him a pass for the night (on strict order that every candle vacate the restaurant as soon as the deed was done.) The owners were paid a ridiculous sum to vacate their tables. All of Merlin’s favorite dishes were supposed to be sitting on the table—Arthur checked his watch—five minutes ago.

He huffed out an agitated breath and began to pace.

The damned man was probably hung up with Gwaine. Gwaine always knew when something important was going on. Especially when it had to do with Arthur. Arthur was pretty sure it was some horrible sixth sense.

He glared at the last cabby to speed by.

His phone rang.

“Merlin! Where the hell are you?” Arthur took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. “I’ve been waiting for you for fifteen minutes. You promised you wouldn’t forget this year.”

“Where am I? Where are you?” Merlin sounded angry. Which wasn’t right.

“What do you mean? I’m waiting for you at outside the office.” Arthur groaned. “We agreed to meet here this morning, remember?”

“…”

“Merlin, I made sure you were awake.”

“No you didn’t.” The voice on the other end of the line was sheepish. Arthur could swear he heard someone laughing in the background.

“Your eyes were open.” He ran a hand over his face. “Is that Gwaine there with you?”

“He was helping me with some things.” Merlin sounded dodgy and Arthur's heart leapt.

The ring in his pocket felt like a burning, heavy stone. Was something wrong?”

“I’m not spending our anniversary with Gwaine.”

“He was supposed to be gone when you arrived.” The laughter in the background grew louder.

“He’s still there, and you called accusing me of being late!” Arthur felt his voice rise. He couldn’t help it.

Half a second and a jumbled, loud noise later Gwaine spoke. “Ay, Princess, stop being a jackass and get over here.”

“You better be gone when I get there. This is my day with Merlin. You can mooch later.”

“Whatever you say, Princess. One day Merlin will come to his senses and I’ll be waiting.”

Arthur growled into the phone. “Look, tell him to be ready. I made reservations.”

“I’ll pass it along.”

Arthur hung up just as Gwaine shouted through the phone. A couple of passers-by looked aghast at him but Arthur only shook his head.

Tonight was not going well at all.

He was supposed to be off today. He’d put in for time off over three months ago.

One five am call and a “work emergency” later, Arthur was rolling over to apologize and Merlin was mumbling an agreement.

It had all been downhill from there.

He had to place the candles between lunch and dinner. He had to confirm all the dishes over a handful of phone calls, which was tedious. Most aggravating of all was the call from the jeweler claiming the ring would never be ready in time. In all of ten minutes, Arthur proved fit throwing could work miracles.

Now he had the ring comfortably in his pocket in its discreet case. Merlin would have no idea.

He could only hope he wasn’t making too many assumptions.

Three years was a good amount of time to wait, right?

Arthur nodded and waved down the next cab.

He spent the entire ride in a fit of anxiety.

What if Merlin said no?

He had been spending a lot of time with Gwaine.

And he'd acted strange lately. Quiet and moody and always laughing nervously when Arthur asked what he’d been up to all day.

Arthur hadn’t thought of it that way before, but now he realized Merlin had been acting very strange the past week or so. The thought left his hands clammy. He suddenly wished the cab ride would last a lot longer than the fifteen minutes it would take from his office to their apartment. He wavered between sure he was worried over nothing and sure Merlin planned on breaking up with him.

By the time he reached their flat he was frantic. He tried to hide his shaking hands and his aching heart as he ascended the steps and flung open his door to find Merlin sitting solemnly on their couch. Arthur’s heart sank when he noticed that Merlin was glaring at the blank television.

“What’d the telly do to you?” He tried to chuckle but the sound caught in his throat and turned into a strangled cough.

“Good god, Arthur. Are you alright? You look sick.” Merlin jumped and rushed over, pushing the back of his hand against Arthur’s forehead.

Arthur scowled. “I’m fine. Why didn’t you meet me at the office?”

“I really did forget. I was busy!” Merlin bit his lip and looked away and Arthur nearly cracked.

“Are you ready to go? We’re late for the reservation.” Arthur ran his hands through his hair and watched Merlin closely.

“Almost. Just help me find my coat first.”

“You mean that coat?” Arthur pointed at the coat hanging by the door.

“Oh, yeah.” Merlin gave a strained laugh and plucked it up.

“Let’s go.”

“I was thinking maybe we could, you know, stay in for this anniversary?”

“What?” Arthur turned, slow and deliberate. Merlin shifted on his feet.

“Well, I didn’t realize you wanted to go out. I had this whole plan, and I was really hoping we could stay in for this anniversary. We go out every year.”

“B-but…” Arthur kept from blurting out his entire plan by sheer will power. “I had something special planned for this one. It was going to be a really _big_ deal.”

A flash of frustration crossed Merlin’s features before he forced his lips into a wide smile. “Ok, ok. If it’s that important to you, we’ll go out. But you have to come into the kitchen first.”

“Merlin, the restaurant’s already called once.” Which was true, except that was at four and had far more to do with the very large order of strictly vegetarian curries. “We need to hurry.”

“We will. I just want to give you your gift.”

“I was going to give you mine at the restaurant.”

“Look, just go into the kitchen, Arthur.” Merlin’s eyes were wild. “Stop being difficult.”

“Ok. Let’s not fight today, yeah?” Arthur held up his hands in surrender and Merlin gave him a genuine smile.

“Seriously, go into the kitchen.” Merlin shooed at him, pecking him once on the cheek. “I think you’ll like it.”

Arthur walked into the kitchen, surprised and a bit miffed that it was dark.

He turned on the light.

 **MARRY ME** greeted him in bright red letters.

The cake was huge. Giant. It was a shimmery, shiny gold. Arthur wondered exactly how much fondant had gone onto it. In the middle tier, stamped clear and bright and red, was that one damned question.

“You can’t be serious.” Arthur heard it before he realized he’d said it, and shot Merlin a horrified look. Which, of course, was misunderstood.

“What? You don’t like it? I thought, you know, it’s been three years. And we’ve talked about it before, I mean, I didn’t really think it was coming from nowhere.” Merlin’s lip trembled. His eyes watered. Arthur shook his head. "I had Gwaine help with the baking and Gwen helped decorate and I really thought--"

“Don’t be an idiot, Merlin. Of course I want to marry you.” He pulled the slim box out of his pocket. Merlin’s teary expression turned puzzled.

“What?”

Arthur pulled the trick box open, revealing the ring in the middle. Emerald stone on a white gold band, exactly the ring Merlin had once fantasized about in one of his stories. “You could not have picked a worst night to ask me to marry you. I have been planning this all day.”

Arthur dropped to his knee.

“You can’t ask me, you jerk. I asked first!” Merlin shook his head and crossed his arms, but his grin was wide.

“Shut up, Merlin. I’m trying to ask you something important.” Arthur cleared his throat. “Merlin Emrys, will you please agree to marry me so we can go eat the frankly ridiculous amount of curry I’ve bought you in romantic candlelight?”

“You are useless, you know.” Merlin leaned down and kissed his nose. “How much curry? Is it from that one place I like?”

“Yes, Merlin. Now say yes, my knee hurts.”

“I like you down there.” Merlin winked.

“Merlin!”

“Yes, I’ll marry you, you prat.” Merlin grinned. “But I still beat you to it.”


End file.
